I really wish I knew the original author of this. I would be more than happy, to give them the credit for this. It pretty much sums up the "mental horsepower" of the Republican Party.

If you've heard this before, I apologize. (but happy as hell that you have)

Mr. Boner, was the first to come to mind, but rest assured, there are many others as well!!

I personally, enjoyed reading this!! I hope you do too!!

***QUOTE***

I’m a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight….

* If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you’re ‘exotic and different’…

* BUT if you grow up in Alaska eating moose burgers, a quintessential American story.

* If your given name is Barack you’re a radical, unpatriotic Muslim…

* BUT if you WILLINGLY name your kids Bristol, Piper, Willow, Trig and Track, you’re a maverick.

* If you graduate from Harvard Law School, you are unstable…

* BUT if you attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you’re well grounded.

* If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as aConstitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate’s Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran’s Affairs committees, you don’t have any real leadership experience…

* BUT if your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you’re qualified to become the country’s second highest ranking executive.

* If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you’re not a real Christian…

* BUT if you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you’re a Christian.

* If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society…

* BUT if, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state’s school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you’re very responsible.

* If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family’s values don’t represent America’s.

* BUT if your husband is nicknamed ‘First Dude’, with at least one DUI conviction and no college education, who didn’t register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.

BUT...BUT...BUT...I THOUGHT THE TAX CUTS FOR THE RICH WERE GOING TO MAKE THEM PUT THEIR EXTRA MONEY TO WORK FOR THE "GREAT UNWASHED," PROVIDING JOBS....GUESS IT DIDN'T HAPPEN, NOT FOR THESE PATRIOTIC MILLIONAIRES!

WASHINGTON -- Paul Egerman isn't certain how many millions he's saved from the tax cuts enacted during the George W. Bush administration in the early 2000s and extended by President Barack Obama in December of last year.

"I do not know how much I've saved over 10 years but I'm sure it is several million dollars -- probably in excess of $10 million," said Egerman, founder of a medical transcription company called eScription.

And what, HuffPost asked, have you done with all that cash?

"I've kept it," he said. "I have not done anything with that money."

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"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime."Honore de Balzac

"Democrats work to help people who need help. That other party, they work for people who don't need help. That's all there is to it."~Harry S. Truman

CLARENCE THOMAS HAS BEEN ONE OF THE MOST CORRUPT SUPREME COURT JUSTICES IN OUR NATION'S HISTORY! THIS IS MUCH WORSE THAN A CONGRESSMAN TRYING TO SHORE UP HIS EGO BY USING HIS TWITTER ACCOUNT TO "SEXT"!!!!!

The New York Times reports on Justice Clarence Thomas’ longstanding — and highly fruitful — relationship with a leading conservative donor named Harlan Crow. Crow has donated nearly $5 million to Republican candidates and conservative organizations, including $100,000 to the anti-John Kerry Swift Boat Veterans for Truth — and he has also been very generous to the Thomas family:

The two men met in the mid-1990s, a few years after Justice Thomas joined the court. Since then, Mr. Crow has done many favors for the justice and his wife, Virginia, helping finance a Savannah library project dedicated to Justice Thomas, presenting him with a Bible that belonged to Frederick Douglass and reportedly providing $500,000 for Ms. Thomas to start a Tea Party-related group. They have also spent time together at gatherings of prominent Republicans and businesspeople at Mr. Crow’s Adirondacks estate and his camp in East Texas. [...]

Mr. Crow has not personally been a party to Supreme Court litigation, but his companies have been involved in federal court cases, including four that went to the appellate level. And he has served on the boards of two conservative organizations involved in filing supporting briefs in cases before the Supreme Court. One of them, the American Enterprise Institute, with Mr. Crow as a trustee, gave Justice Thomas a bust of Lincoln valued at $15,000 and praised his jurisprudence at an awards gala in 2001.

As the Times‘ article details, Crow also donated $1.3 million to help set up a museum that Thomas has been heavily involved in creating — an arrangement that could violate the Code of Conduct for U.S. Judges if it wasn’t for the fact that the Supreme Court has exempted itself from this Code.

Sadly, Thomas’ relationship with Crow — and the even more troubling fact that he received a $15,000 gift from an organization that frequently files briefs before his Court — is merely the most recent example of many ethically questionable actions by Justice Thomas:

READ THE LIST OF THOMAS'S UNETHICAL BEHAVIOR AT THE LINK!

_________________

"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime."Honore de Balzac

"Democrats work to help people who need help. That other party, they work for people who don't need help. That's all there is to it."~Harry S. Truman

Justice Clarence Thomas is an ethics problem in a black robe. Just eight months after ThinkProgress broke the story of Thomas’ attendance at a Koch-sponsored political fundraiser, we learn that Thomas doesn’t just do unethical favors for wealthy right-wing donors — they also do expensive favors for him.

Leading conservative donor Harlan Crow, whose company often litigates in federal court, donated $500,000 to allow Thomas’s wife to start a Tea Party group and he once gave Thomas a $19,000 Bible that belonged to Frederick Douglass. The American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank which frequently files briefs in Thomas’ Court, also gave Thomas a $15,000 gift.

If this sounds familiar, it’s because America has seen this movie before. Indeed, the Thomas scandal is little more than a remake of the forty year-old gifting scandal that brought down Justice Abe Fortas. Like Thomas, Fortas liked to associate with wealthy individuals with potential business before his Court. And like Thomas, Fortas took inappropriate gifts from his wealthy benefactors.

Fortas’ questionable gifts first came out when President Johnson nominated him for a promotion to Chief Justice of the United States in 1968. Fortas had accepted $15,000 to lead seminars at American University — far more than the university normally paid for such services — and the payments were bankrolled by the leaders of frequent corporate litigants including the vice president of Phillip Morris. Fortas survived this revelation, although his nomination for the Chief Justiceship was filibustered into oblivion.

THERE ARE COMMENTS AT THE LINK THAT SEEM TO IMPLY THAT ANTHONY WEINER WAS DOING SOME INVESTIGATING INTO THOMAS'S QUESTIONABLE ETHICS.

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"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime."Honore de Balzac

"Democrats work to help people who need help. That other party, they work for people who don't need help. That's all there is to it."~Harry S. Truman

Keith Olberman flashed a pic of Thomas and his fat wife, Jennie, last night on his show. What a repulsive pair they are! She's about as butt ugly as she can get...and then there's an equally ugly Thomas standing beside her, grinning like an alligator. They both looked so smug and self-satisfied. I guess they have a right to because they've certainly been successful in their corruption. I keep hoping that the good old adage of what goes around will come around will happen to this outlaw pair, but so far, I don't see any dust on the horizon! When it does develop, I hope, hope, hope, the dust cloud is great enough to also envelope Scalia...he's awful.

_________________

"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime."Honore de Balzac

"Democrats work to help people who need help. That other party, they work for people who don't need help. That's all there is to it."~Harry S. Truman

I happened to be looking at a few of our local area newspapers to see if there has been any kind of negative reaction to the NC General Assembly's new budget, which slashes funding for education and public safety. As some of you know, my red state of NC was taken over by the Republicans after the Nov. 2010 election, the first time in almost 150 years. I've found some interesting things, including a poll asking for the local people to grade the General Assembly's actions so far...amazingly, the vast majority of those who responded said they would prefer to hold new elections TODAY because they thought the elected officials were favoring their rich donors! I wonder what the hell they thought the Repubs would do...and why the Democrats in my county stayed home on election day...the turnout was one of the lowest in the state! I hope this teaches them a lesson on getting out and voting.

Then, I found this letter to the editor. The writer is referring to the damage done by the Republican-led General Assembly in passing a budget that does more damage than good...our Democratic governor vetoed the budget, but the Republicans, with 5 betraying Dems, managed to override her veto!

Quote:

First, it eliminates more than 9,000 positions in our public schools – the biggest layoffs of teachers, principals and administrators in North Carolina history. In Western North Carolina, public school will be required to cut $16.4 million from the classrooms. At this rate, we will be below South Carolina and Mississippi in per-pupil spending. Western Carolina University would have to eliminate 11 percent of its faculty, resulting in the loss of an estimated 147 courses per semester and 3,600 fewer classroom seats. Appalachian State University would have to eliminate financial aid and loan staff, which is compounded by the increase in students with financial need requirements.

Second, it provides fewer services for our seniors. These are people who have contributed all their lives to their families, churches and communities; and now the Republican budget punishes them by cutting services to help them live independently.

Finally, the Republican budget makes our communities less safe. Our highways will be less safe, and our capability to respond to emergencies will be diminished. The Republican budget reduces our land and water conservation programs by 74 percent, including an 89-percent cut to clean water programs.

_________________

"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime."Honore de Balzac

"Democrats work to help people who need help. That other party, they work for people who don't need help. That's all there is to it."~Harry S. Truman

Anywhere where Rs took over has been ravaged. I swear, it is criminal. I did see Rs are trying to privatize all schools and that is why they are dismantling public ones. Don't remember where I saw it but will look for it.

AND...THE NEW REPUBLICAN SPEAKER OF THE NC STATE HOUSE IN RALEIGH, AFTER SUPPORTING ALL THOSE CUTS TO NC EDUCATION AND OTHER PROGRAMS, TURNED RIGHT AROUND AND GAVE HIS STAFF AND OTHERS WHO SUPPORT HIM A HUGE, HUGE RAISE!!!! SOME OF THEM GOT AS MUCH AS A 27% INCREASE IN THEIR PAY CHECK!!!!!!

BELIEVE ME, THAT IS NOT SITTING WELL WITH PEOPLE, INCLUDING EVEN SOME CONSERVATIVE REPUBS! MY STATE HASN'T GOTTEN ANGRY LIKE WISCONSIN, BUT IT MIGHT...IT MIGHT....AND I WISH, WISH, WISH, IT WOULD!

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"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime."Honore de Balzac

"Democrats work to help people who need help. That other party, they work for people who don't need help. That's all there is to it."~Harry S. Truman

In an exclusive interview with ThinkProgress, Rep. Chris Murphy (D-CT) — the lead sponsor of a bill which would strip Supreme Court justices of their immunity from a code of ethical conduct that applies to other federal judges — suggests that an investigation may be necessary to determine whether Justice Clarence Thomas’ many ethics scandals rise to the level where Thomas is no longer fit to serve on the nation’s highest Court:

Quote:

Republicans are silent on Thomas for a simple reason. He’s doing their bidding on the Supreme Court today, and they don’t want to do anything that compromises his ability to enforce a political agenda in the United States judicial system.

MAYBE WE'LL SEE THOMAS HAVE TO RESIGN IN DISGRACE WITHIN OUR LIFETIME!

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"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime."Honore de Balzac

"Democrats work to help people who need help. That other party, they work for people who don't need help. That's all there is to it."~Harry S. Truman

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), a leading advocate of shrinking entitlement spending and the architect of the plan to privatize Medicare, spent Wednesday evening sipping $350 wine with two like-minded conservative economists at the swanky Capitol Hill eatery Bistro Bis.

It was the same night reports started trickling out about President Obama pressing Congressional leaders to consider changes to Social Security and Medicare in exchange for GOP support for targeted tax increases.

The pomp and circumstance surrounding the waiter's presentation, uncorking and decanting of the pricey Pinot Noir caught the attention of another diner who had already recognized Ryan sitting with two other men nearby.

Susan Feinberg, an associate business professor at Rutgers, was at Bistro Bis celebrating her birthday with her husband that night. When she saw the label on the bottle of Jayer-Gilles 2004 Echezeaux Grand Cru Ryan's table had ordered, she quickly looked it up on the wine list and saw that it sold for an eye-popping $350, the most expensive wine in the house along with one other with the same pricetag.

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"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime."Honore de Balzac

"Democrats work to help people who need help. That other party, they work for people who don't need help. That's all there is to it."~Harry S. Truman

Common Cause, a non-partisan watchdog group, has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to discover if Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas failed to properly disclose the use of private jets and a yacht. Travel records obtained by the New York Times indicated that Thomas probably used planes and a yacht owned by Republican donor Harlan Crow. “Americans are concerned, and rightfully so, over mounting evidence that our highest court is operating outside the ethical standards that apply to other federal judges,” Common Cause President Bob Edgar said. Edgar noted that under the Ethics in Government Act, there are civil and criminal penalties for willfully falsifying or failing to report required information on annual financial disclosures.

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"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime."Honore de Balzac

"Democrats work to help people who need help. That other party, they work for people who don't need help. That's all there is to it."~Harry S. Truman